Archive for February, 2015

This was one of my crazy bird shots (Great Blue Heron) taken at the Ritch Grissom Viera Wetlands in Brevard County, Florida. Just had total fun working on this image! In Lightroom used Seim’s (see sidebar for website link) Ultra Color and Magic Ugly Shade Fixer presets before opening the photo in Photoshop. The layer was duplicated and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Black and White Effects was applied. Mainly set the preset to a Transition of 100% so some color came through and used its layer mask to sharpen the bird and add some additional color. A stamped layer was created (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT_+E) and this layer was taken into Topaz Glow where Blake Rudis’ Animal preset was applied. Then the layer was set to Multiply blend mode at 88%. (See my How to Get the Soft Glow in Topaz Glow.) On yet another stamped layer, Nik Viveza 2 was used to really emphasize the beautiful bird head. That was it and I just loved the results!…..Digital Lady Syd

02/26/2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Keeping an Eye on Things

This man is taking photos at the Ritch Grissom Viera Wetlands which is in Brevard County, Florida. It was a beautiful day to see the birds in their natural habitats and this guy had this huge lens – he was actually shooting to an equivalent of 1400 mm! Totally amazing! This image used 2 Lil’ Owls Studio’s (see sidebar for website link) Matte Glam 17 preset in Lightroom along with a Gradient Filter to increase the blue color slightly in the upper water. Brought the image into Photoshop and ran Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Detail 3 to slightly sharpen the overall image using my Little Med Large Detail preset – (Set to Overall, Medium Details 0.38, Large Details 0.16, and Tone Contrast 0.30). Created a duplicate layer and created a Smart Object where the Liquify Filter was used to slightly slim the man down. A Curves Adjustment Layer was applied and the Layer Mask was filled with black. Just the water area was painted back to give the background a little more contrast that I wanted. That was it. Wish I had a lens like that!!!!!…..Digital Lady Syd

So how do you create this tree effect? About all I can say is by following Painter for Photographers videos from Melissa Gallo, a Corel Painter master who really knows how to paint. She supplies the brushes and and papers to get this result. It was a lot of fun to create this little image from scratch……Digital Lady Syd

Just went back and listenedd to Karen Bonaker’s wonderful Corel Webinar called Corel Painter Mixed Media Painting and thought I’d try some of her tips. Many of the steps and brushes used in her examples were used along with several brushes created by following Jason Moranto’s Brush Engine Essentials videos offered at Karen’s Digital Art Academy – this is a great way to learn Painter! Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle’s Desert Dust preset set to Soft Light blend mode was applied and set to 50% layer opacity. Nik Viveza 2 to draw out the focal point a little bit. Need to try this one if you like a watercolor look. Creating this image was totally fun!…..Digital Lady Syd

Just used my red hibiscus object image again to try out some texture effects with the background. I really liked the results. The flower was brought in and it was duplicated. Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReStyle’s Cream and Plum preset was applied to the duplicated layer and set to Darken blend mode at 66% layer opacity. A texture that was made in Corel Painter using the Coarse Smear Blender Jitter brush (a FB friend used this brush quite effectively on an image) in a brownish beige color was added underneath the flower. It was also duplicated, Free Transformed (CTRL+T) where it was reduced and flipped horizontally, and lined up under the flower. A Levels Adjustment Layer and a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer were clipped (ALT+click between the layers to clip) to the top texture layer to get the pinkish color. The last texture added just below the flower was made in Corel Painter using the Gravity Bristle Particle Brush (learned how to do this at the end of Commercial Packaging Illustration with Michael Bast Corel video where he shows the technique – I really liked it! Saved it as a PSD to open in Photoshop as a texture.) It was set to Multiply blend mode and an olive green Solid Color Adjustment Layer was clipped to this texture to make it a soft olive green. A stamped version was created on top and Blend If sliders applied before some clean up work was done. A final Levels Adjustment Layer was used to get the effect. Loved creating the textures for this!…..Digital Lady Syd